Nowadays smartphones, tablets and desktop/laptop computers are all siblings. They use the same UI paradigms and follow the same idea of a programmable and flexible machine that's available to everyone. Only their hardware feature set and form factor differentiate them from each other. In this context, does it still make sense to consider them as separate devices as far as software development is concerned? Wouldn't it be a much better idea to consider them as multiple variations of the same concept, and release a unified software platform which spreads across all of them? This article aims at describing what has been done in this area already, and what's left to do.

But then you will have to re-code your app's UI and users will have to re-learn it each time you move to a new device. It's the good old single-platform vs multi-platform debate, really... Only this time, multi-platform is something more interesting than just a way of supporting niche OSs.

So far, it has not been proven that the concept of multiplatform apps is fundamentally wrong. Only that Windows Mobile sucks on a touchscreen. Which is not relevant in this context, considering that 1/WM was designed for stylus use to begin with and 2/WM apps are not ported Windows apps, contrary to popular belief.